This is a novel that brings mystery, romance, bloody horror, and magic together with a fast-paced plot and dynamic setting and succeeds on every level.

My first job with this review, then, is to reassure everyone that not only does Within These Wicked Walls live up to the comparison, it is also an enthralling gothic tale that will appeal to readers with no knowledge of Thornfield Hall, destitute governesses, or, thank goodness, the cliched “mad woman in the attic.” Personally, I’m not a fan of Jane Eyre, but I have many positive things to say about Blackwood’s book. The publicity materials for Lauren Blackwood’s Within These Wicked Walls describe the book as an “Ethiopian-inspired debut retelling of Jane Eyre.” If you aren’t a fan of Charlotte Bronte’s classic this might put you off the book, whereas, if you are a fan, you might be instantly concerned that the marketing machine is overreaching. She grew up in New York but currently lives in Virginia.Within These Wicked Walls, Lauren Blackwood ( Wednesday Books 978-0-1, $18.99, hc 336pp) November 2021.

Lauren Blackwood is a Jamaican American who is the author of Within These Wicked Walls. But leaving Magnus to live out his curse alone isn’t an option because―heaven help her―she’s fallen for him. Death is the most likely outcome if she stays, the reason every debtera before her quit. If Andromeda wants to earn a living, she has no choice.īut she quickly realizes this is a job like no other, with horrifying manifestations at every turn, and that Magnus is hiding far more than she has been trained for. Never mind that he’s rude and demanding and eccentric, that the contract comes with a number of outlandish rules… and that almost a dozen debtera had quit before her. When a handsome young heir named Magnus Rochester reaches out to hire her, she takes the job without question. Now her only hope of steady work is to find a Patron―a rich, well-connected individual who will vouch for her abilities. She would be hired, that is, if her mentor hadn’t thrown her out before she could earn her license. What the heart desires, the house destroys…Īndromeda is a debtera―an exorcist hired to cleanse households of the Evil Eye.

Within wicked walls